The present invention relates generally to fluidic samplers and in particular to fluid sampling in the nuclear industry.
In the nuclear industry, it is desirable to obtain unbiased samples (without dilution or concentration), without using pumps. Samples are needed to determine the chemical makeup of solutions in process vessels; without this information, the process cannot be run. Pumps are undesirable because they cannot endure high radiation fields and are therefore unreliable and maintenance intensive. Pumps also produce pressurized sample lines which represent a potential criticality danger if the sampler should leak. Pumps may be precluded on another criteria, as all existing samplers have an inherent leakage danger in a pressurized system. As a result, air lifts and/or jet ejectors with double-needle samplers or similar samplers are typically used for sampling. Another option that is used primarily in Europe and Japan is fluidic pumping of solution. However, this transfer method produces a pressurized sample line.